danielmeench Reviews

Text (2019)

The first two opening sequences are enough to watch to get a representation of the mediocrity of a movie.

[4/10 · 21 December 2019]

The first two opening sequences are enough to watch to get a representation of the mediocrity of a movie. You can smell rotten fish from the first minutes.

A leading actor Sasha Petrov is thirty years old and looks thirty-five, so when he is represented to us as a young student it is simply implausible. "A junkhead who deals drugs living with his mom" that I would believe. And it's just the start.

The lack of decent introduction of an antagonist played by another nohow actor Ivan Yankovsky leaves the same feeling of being tricked. The whole "night club sequence" looks both poorly acted and overplayed (depends on what actor you are looking at). Yes, it may happen in an up to the neck corrupted country as it was shown - fast and simple. But it doesn't mean that we have to watch it on the screen the same way, without any explanation or backstory or a clue in a simple gesture made by a character in a one tiny few seconds scene before the "plot twist".

And after the ten and a half minutes of pretending-to-be-a-movie, we get an undeservedly pretentious cut with a title of a movie. Like their saying "yes, it can and will be worse"...

Too Old to Die Young (2019)

That is huge.

[10/10 · 28 June 2019]

It is a whole new level of tv shows. Everyone's writing about the visual side of it which is tremendous. And would like to write a bit about what it tells.

Imagine that you play with a Chinese secret box and every time you take down a part of it, instead of getting smaller, it grows and you find yourself deeper in it, until the climax, that hides inside, washes you away.

There are so many themes opens up act by act, that by the end of the watch I had this thought about the plot and characters, about their place in the story and projection of it on a real life.

Unfortunately, I am not gonna write it here, because I don't want to spoil anything, and mostly 'cause I want to keep it for myself. So I could share it with the right person at the right time, just talking. Like they do.

Thank you NWR for this amazing experience.

Final Portrait (2017)

For the sophisticated spectator

[8/10 · 22 February 2018]

The search for perfection is an endless workflow. It is a routine in which there is always time for a walk with a friend, an affair with a muse or a fight with a wife.

The peculiarity of this picture is that Tucci does not dramatize the reality of life. He shows everything as it happens in it. A good well-done shot story about the true love of artists for their craft.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)

Bad review for the worst sequel in the franchise

[2/10 · 29 May 2017]

After I watched the trailer I thought it might be not so good as Gore Verbinski's trilogy. Perhaps, it will be like the last one, I thought. But after I watched "Dead Men Tell No Tales" I decided to write my first review ever.

From the very beginning, I plunged into action. Scene after scene I watched sluggish events with poor lines that hardly give an excuse for the actions of the characters. The story is built on past movies success and lies (there are small, but very notable inconsistencies), which is unacceptable even for Hollywood.

The most daring, tricky, witty and sexy pirate Jack has become a silly and shabby drunkard, who doesn't deserve even a one-legged moldy prostitute from Tortuga. Brenton Thwaites and Kaya Scodelario's characters were remembered by inconclusive speeches and expressive decollete (close-ups). The lines of Captain Salazar are illegible, and breathing sounds unhealthy even for a dead man. Oh,and the worst part is an old chestnut from Sir Paul McCartney's cameo.

In this picture there are no beautiful landscapes and spectacular panoramas. Some scenes looks like a rehearsal for a theatrical performance. Too many visual effects, led by unnatural image of a young Jack Sparrow. There were so many visual effects that the ship and some crew members of Captain Salazar cannot be seen in the literal sense.

At last, spoilers, sorry. The trident is shaped like the Harry's broom Nimbus 2000. Carina Smith's tear-stained red eyes are "up in smoke". And the death of captain Barbossa is very "die hard".

I do not know who was at the wheel actually, but he deliberately sent the "Dead Men Tell No Tales" ship to the reefs and smashed it to pieces. In the end, I felt nothing but chagrin and disappointment.